18 comments:

The Royal Gorge Bridge is the one I have crossed. The Japanese bridge at the end shouldn't have been the scariest- the grade is only about 6-7% which is no worse than a hill you can find on any interstate highway that goes over a pass in the US. I suspect those pictures are illusions.

For me the scariest on that list would have been the bridge in Pakistan- those planks look termite ridden to me. The one I would love to do, however, would be the one in Crimea- that would be a blast.

I have done the Royal Gorge and the Irish rope bridge. The old McKinley Bridge crossing the Mississippi in St Louis was a terrifying feature of my childhood with its thin outer rails, open steel grate decking, curve at one end and railroad track down the center. The railroad track went straight off the bridge where the roadway curved, and drunks were always driving off down the trestled tracks to their doom.

The scariest bridge in the world for me has been replaced by the excellent Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge in Charleston. The old bridge was only one lane in each direction and quite terrifying when crossing to Mount Pleasant with a panicky Irish Wolfhound.

If you'd like to be scared shitless try the road to the top of the Capulin Volcano National Monument in eastern New Mexico. At the top, I got out of the car and laid on the ground for a few minutes just to verify that the danger of instant death was momentarily passed.

Then I walked the 2 mile trail around the rim ... Complete with a rattlesnake sunning itself ....

#3 looks the scariest to me. First, this thing will swing like crazy in the slightest wind. Second, it looks incredibly dangerous with all those gaps between the planks. Miss a step and you topple to your doom.

As for driving some of the bridges shown. I've driven bridges "Like" that, and wasn't scared because of the bridge. No, what scared me of being surrounded by assholes in other cars, who went incredibly fast, and didn't seem to understand that if anyone made a mistake, you'd have a massive accident.

But people drive in foggy conditions like that too. Hey, there's fog on the road, but I'll drive 70 MPH, because what could go wrong. Being around idiots is the most scary thing in the world.

If that was a computer-generated voice-over, it was a pretty good one.

The scariest bridge I've crossed was the old Jamestown Bridge in Rhode Island, crossing to Conanicut Is, the island between the mainland and the bridge to Newport. Super narrow, very steep, steel grating.